Large format flatbed printers may be employed to print signs, banners, posters or the like, on rigid or flexible sheets of media of several materials, sizes and thicknesses. The sheets may be printed while supported on a printing table: suitable loaders, for example having vacuum cups, may be provided to pick up media sheets from a loading top or surface, transfer them to the printing table, and remove them from the printing table after printing.
The loading top may generally be arranged on one side of the printer. An operator, or an automatic pre-set loading machinery, may place on the loading top a large media sheet to be printed, or a row of several smaller media sheets, parallel to each other and aligned in a direction at right angles with respect to the movement of the loader. The loader may then pick up and transfer to the printing table the large sheet, using several vacuum cups; in the case of a row of sheets, it can pick up the sheets of the row using one or more cups for each sheet, and transfer several sheets at the same time to the printing table.
For security reasons, a cover may enclose the loader, leaving only a low elongate opening in correspondence with the loading top, allowing the passage of the sheets of media. The operator may thus place a sheet on the loading top, pushing the sheet such that its leading edge slips under the cover through the opening and reaches a position where part of the sheet is accessible and may be picked up by the loader. The operator is therefore isolated from the loader at all times.